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The probem hiking the price back up is sooner or later inflation will take its toil. The high cost of oil means high transport costs means increase in price of comic - and this means at some future point the comic will break past the five pound price range. At some point it will happen because publications rarely drop in price, they always increase. Rebellion have few options now. They reduced the Meg's price because it was rather expensive and now they're putting it back up. If sales don't pick up and they increase the Meg to, say, six quid, I think that's gonna kill it off. They've boxed themselves into a corner? Possibly.

One another point - the Meg merging with 2000AD may not be such a bad thing from a story perspective. If you look at this month's Dredd story - Ratfink - it could be compressed to six pages without losing much or any of the plot. The Megazine stretches stories a bit to fill the extra pages but 2000AD's great strength is its economy - the five or six page format. Stories rarely lag in 2000AD because of the five/six page format. Imho Ratfink would be just as good in 2000AD as it is in the Meg.

Theres still some pretty important things TBC:

Whether the Megazine itself will still contain reprint.

Whether it will still contain text articles and movie reviews.

How many pages it will have.

Yep, I mentioned this too. I'm guessing the page count will go up to jusitfy the price hike so this should mean more reprints/articles. It's a catch 22. You increase the price/page count but have to fill it with articles/reprints or you lower the price/page count but make less profit per issue.

I have affection for the Meg because it was the first 2000AD spin-off comic and the early strips were memorable and defined the comic: America, Young Death, Kenny Who, Al's Baby etc.  It was an exciting time to be a 2000AD reader - two 2000AD related comics from Fleetway. It would be a shame if it folded but if you look at the current line-up, all three stories have featured in 2000AD:

Dredd - appears each week in 2000AD
Lowlife - started in 2000AD
Anderson - started in 2000AD

2000ad could absorb the Meg's roster of characters without too much problem. A story like Tempest could translate to 2000AD without any problem. You could argue it's the perfect 2000AD character: subversive,  with dark humour, lots of violence. It would be sad if declining sales forced the Meg to fold (and I guess EE and the Meg merging is a sign of falling sales) but it's had a good lifespan. 18 years old. That's a great achievement. If the Meg merged with 2000AD it would be a pity but I'm sure 2000AD would continue giving the world its weekly ration of thrill-power.

[and]

But does the new Meg contain all new material? I think a Meg with a reprint and a graphic novel attached is a lot of reprint for a fiver. I'm still going to buy it but I assume (and correct me if I'm wrong) the Meg will still contain reprint material.

It looks good to me. I guess their logo needed updating for the 21st century.

The worst logo ever is this:



It takes a lot of skill to come up with something this bad! Depending how your mind processes the image, it's either

Lisa Simpson practising her oral skills on her boyfriend

or

Pink vomit

 

You are Dez Skinn and I claim my £5!

That's the second time someone has said I'm someone I'm not! I can tell you one thing...


I'm not....


Tharg.  

No one is forcing anyone to buy anything! And the suggestion that they're trying to kill off the magazine is ridiculous. If they wanted to cancel it then they would, and not spend more money on it

Well looking at it from my perspective - they are forcing me to buy graphic novels I don't need. If I want to buy the new Meg (and I do because I read it each month) and don't want to buy the Snow/Tiger graphic novel (which I already have because it was published in 2000AD a few years back), what do I do? Tear off the graphic novel section before paying for the Meg?  

I assume the EE is losing sales hence its merger with the Meg. This is common when a title is losing money and readers. It merges with a more popular title. The downside is the price has jumped back up to close to a fiver. I think there's a distinct chance the Meg will fold within a year. I don't wish it to fold, I read it each month, but five pounds is a lot. Then again, a lot of things have increased in price: food, fuel, general cost of living, so maybe a fiver for a Dredd comic isn't that much. I can't see casual readers buying it. Would seem too costly, even with the graphic novel attached.

[all new]

To me it doesn't make any sense other than forcing people that don't want to read EE to buy it with the Meg. In that way it does seem a tad cynical. For example, I'm fortunate to have a full collection of 2000AD so I've never bought EE and I don't need to get Snow/Tiger and future 2000AD graphic novels. I've already got 'em. To put it bluntly, I'm paying for something I don't need.

Another question:

How many pages is the new Meg and will it contain all new material? If we're getting reprints in the Meg as well as reprinted graphic novels that's a bit over-the-top.  I wouldn't mind seeing some more Daily Star Dredds or Charlie's War reprints but if we get those reprinted in the Meg and we get graphic novels instead of EE we're getting twice as much reprint. It does seem as if we're being forced to get extra reprint, and stuff like Snow/Tiger... well, I'd rather it was Daily Star Dredd, Charlie's War or more Bob the Galactic Bum (if there are more series out there). But I guess everyone has their ideal choices for reprint material and you can't please everyone. Snow/Tiger does seem an odd choice, must admit!  

[Will the more casual JD Meg fan buy a comic priced at £4.99 even with a 2000AD graphic novel attached?]

The price of the Meg is going back up to £4.99.

Can't see that helping the Meg's sales. Could kill it off. I thought the price drop was a way to get people to continuing buying it. Strange move to increase it to one pence shy of a fiver.

The big question is

Will the more casual JD Meg fan buy a comic priced at £4.99 even with a 2000AD graphic novel attached?

I hope we're not seeing the demise of the Dredd Meg. A fiver is quite a lot for a comic. A more cynical person might believe Rebellion want to kill off the Meg. In the long run it might save them more money - one comic published rather than two.

Won't feel like Prisoner if it's not filmed at Portmeirion.  I suppose they could build a set similar to  Portmeirion. And let's hope Jim Caviezel speaks with a British accent. Number Six is British, not American. They might as well get the basics right rather than needless reinvention.

The Vort reads as Si Spurrier. If it's not him, then the writer is very similar.

First person narration,

New swear words,

Bit of introspection,

Colourful prose,

And I reckon the cameo by Lobster Random gave it away.  

The one with the perp that spitted. That was dead good that was.  

I think his best one was the story set about Justice 1 or whatever the spaceship is called. It was a murder mystery. Art by Peter Doherty. That was pretty good. And he did write the story where Dredd killed Chief Judge Silver. Can't remember if it was any good but it was a key moment in Dredd history. Silver was a zombie and Dredd killed him. Dredd's killed a few Chief Judges in his time. Must be his tight boots annoying him.

Why would anyone moan about this forum? If you're struggling with it, just click 'view active topics' and it will digest the forum. No need to leave, Logan. I think he's reacted without thinking about it. The forum is better than the old one because you can search what you like. If you don't want to look at, say, tv and films, you don't have to look at that section. And if you want to look at all recent posts, you can do so too. It caters for everyone.

Daniel Craig is a great Bond. Very handsome, suave, cool, he's like Sean Connery but a billion times better.

Is there a smilie for extreme sarcasm?

 

It must be a Carry On film. So many to choose from.

Ideally the only change I'd like to see with these monthlies would be the story telling discipline ie instead of pacing the strip based on the assumption it will be seven pages long it will be written with twenty-two pages in mind.

This has already happened, Richard.

The first DC Legends of the Law story was by Wagner and Grant. It was your typical Dredd story stretched to fit the extended page format. It was quite funny. It featured a homicidal singing organlegger:

http://www.escapecomics.com/acatalog/Ju ... e_Law.html